Street indicator for street cars



L. G. SCOTT.

STREET INDICATOR FOB STREET CARS.

APPLICATION HLED SEPT. H, 1920.

Patented .Tan. 24, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

ATTORNEY L. G. SCOTT.

STREET momma FOR STREET CARS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 1I 1920. 1 ,404,72(), Patented Jan. 24, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

1W firm? 5y y?" N STTflii LYLE Gr. SCOTT, 0Z5 TWO HARBORS, MINNESOTA.

STREET INDICATGR FOR STREET CARS.

icence.

Specification of Letters Patent. P m t Jan. 24,, 1 22 Application filed September 11, 1920. Serial No. 409,577.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, LY EG. Soorr, a citizen of the United States, residing at Two Harbors, in the county of St. Louis and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Street 111-- dicators for Street Cars, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

, This invention consists of certain new and useful improvements in street indicating devices for vehicles and relates particularly to such a device for use in street cars.

The principal objects of the invention are to provide a simple device of this character, certain in operation and more practical than those heretofore known in the art.

Another object of the invention is to provide means whereby the street indicating film may be easily, removed from one indicator and placed into another.

Other objects and advantages of my novel construction will appear in thefurther description of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings forming part of this application and .in which like reference numerals indicate like parts:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the device, showing the street indicating film broken away for convenience of illustrating the wiring diagram, and with the cover therefor removed;

Figure 2 is an inverted side elevation of the ratchet wheel mechanism taken on the line 2-2, Figurel;

Figure 3 is an end elevation of the operating mechanism with the end of the housing removed;

Figure 4 is a front elevation of ,the upper end of the trolley pole of a street car showing the contact device for operatingthe indicator;

Figure 5 is a side elevation of Figure 4;

Figure 6 is an end elevation of the film spools;

Figure 7 is a section on the line 7-7, Figure 1; and

Figure 8 is a section on the line 88, Figure 1.

Referring now to Figure l of the drawings, 1, 2, 3 and 1 represent the side walls of the rectangularly shaped housing in which the operating mechanism is contained. hinged, as at 6, Figure 3, for the convenient The cover 5, for the housing, is.

removal or installation of the street indieating film, and the entire housing is preferably constructed'of metal so as to insure rigid support for the opera-ting mechanism.

As armeans for supplying electrical energy to the device, I have shown in Figure 4: the-contact clip 7 attached to the trolley wire: 8 and which may be located=on the wire at the desired intervals for indicating the specific street names to the passengers. The clip 7 has an offset, portion 9formed at the lower end thereof and in a direct line with the substantially Z-shaped arm 10 of the holding clip 11 attached to the trolley pole 12, so that, as the car advances, the arm 10 will strike the portion 9, which causes a contact to be made and furnishes electric energy to a part of the device, as hereinafter described. The arm 10 is pivotally attached to the clip 11as at 13,and a spiral spring 14 is installed, as shown in Fig. 5, intermediate of the lower end of the arm 10 and the clip 11 to normally hold the, upper end, of the .arm in the path of each succeeding contact clip as the car advances. The arm 10 and the clip 11 are insulated from the trolley pole 12 so that the current thus obtained, when the arm 10 strikes the portion 9 of the clip 7, will pass downwardly adjacent the pole into the car to the street indicating device in the forward part ofthe car andto a binding post 15,- (Figure 1), and which furnishes the positive electricity to a part of the operating mechanism.

Another positive pole is shown at 16 which obtains current from the trolley pole direct, and the negative pole of all circuits in the device i shown at 17, and their relation. to the circuits will be described later.

Now, whenthe car advances and the arm 10 strikes the contact clip on the trolley wire as above described, the circuit comprising the wires 18 and 19 to the electro magnet 22 will be closed, and the arm 20 of the lever 21, which is pivotally attached as at 82 in any desired manner to the receptacle, will be attracted to the magnet 22. This will cause the extremity 23 of the lever 21 to come'in contact with the flat spring contact plate 24:, which is secured to the receptaclein any desired manner, as by screws, indicated at 25, and will close the circuit, comprising the wires 26, 27 and 28, to the solenoid 29, thus causing the enlarged iron portion 30 fixed to the brass core 31 to 110 move inwardly into the solenoid, overcoming the resistance to such motion by the helical spring 32 which surrounds that portion of the core 31 within the solenoid 29, resulting in the extreme end of the core 31 striking the member 21, above the pivotal point thereof, and causing the contact, made by the extremity 23 of the lever 21 and the contact plate 24, to be broken. The solenoid 29 will then be inactive and the spring 32 will force the core 31 outwardly, and, since the end 33 of the core 31 is pivoted, as at 34, to the bell crank 35, to the arm 36 of which is pivotally attached, as at 37, the gravity pawl 39, the outward movement of the core 31, together with the cooperating parts, will cause the ratchetwheel 38 to be rotated and will impart similar motion to the brass shaft 40 upon which the ratchet wheel 38 is splined.

"Thus, when the mechanism is in the position illustrated in Figure 1 of the drawings, thefilm winding roller 41 will be rotated through the medium of the shaft 40, the

beveled gear 42, securely attached to the shaft 40, and the beveled gear 43, which meshes with the gear 42. It is evident then that as the car progresses the mechanism will continue to "operate as heretofore described until it reaches the end of the car line when the entire indicating portion of the film will have been wound on the roller 41, leaving the similar roller 86 unwound,

which will expose the copper band 44, encircling and set flush with the surface of the roller 86, to the spring wires 45 and 46 which lead to the plate 47 attached in any desired manner to the back of the receptacle lVhe'n the ends of the'wires 45 and 46 come in contact with the copper band 44, the circuit comprising the wires 45, 48, 49, 50, 51 and 46, to one 'side of the double solenoid 52, will be closed, which will cause the iron core 53 fixed to the shaft 40 to be drawn to the other end of the solenoid 52 to that shown in Figure 1, and the entire shaft 40 will move so that the beveled gears 54 and 55 'will be in meshed relation with each other,

and the slidable switch key 56, upon the rod 40, will have moved from the contact point '57 to the contact point 58, and the mechanism is then in readiness for the return trip of the car. In the rod 40, and for cooperativ'e' engagement with the switch key 56, is -55 formedan annular groove, not shown, simi lar to the groove 65, thereby preventing lateral movement upon the shaft 40 of the switch key '56 and yet allowing the rod 40 to freely rotate therewith'in, It is now evi- 'den'tthat as the car progresses on its return trip andtjhe' mechanism operates as the car passes each'street crossing the street indicatfing film will be wound from the roller 41 back ontothe roller '86 until the car reaches "the other end of the line, when the ind ieating portion of the film will have been entirely wound upon the roller 86, and, therefore, will expose the copper plate on the roller 41, which is similar to the plate 44, to the ends of the wires and 61. This action will cause the circuit, comprising the wires 60, 62, 49, 50, 63, and 61, to the other end of the solenoid 52, to be closed, resulting in the core 53 of the shaft 40 being drawn back to the position shown in Figure 1, the gears 42 and 43 being again placed in meshed relation, and the mechanism is then in readiness for the car to proceed to the other end of the line. Y

In order that the rod 40 may change its position at either end of the line-as just previously described without changing its operative connection with the solenoid 29, I have provided a longitudinal keyway in that part of the shaft 40 which extends through the center of the notched wheel 38 it having a key formed integral therewith and registering with the keyway of the shaft 40, so that-anyrotation of the wheel 38 will correspondingly rotate the shaft 40, and yet the shaft 40 is free to mox 'evlaterally as previously described. 7 Y r The opposite end of the shaft 40 terminates in the journal bearing 64 and has two annular grooves formed in the circumference thereof as at '65, the distance between their centers bein'g'the same distance the rod40 must move in order to change the direction of the street indicating film. A comcally shaped spring actuated dog 66 13 -mounted within the bearing 64 and which normally retains the shaft 40 in either of its operative positions when the dog is registering with either of the grooves 65.

As a means for preventing the street in-' dicating film from moving too far and to hold the street names appearing thereon in the center of that part of the cover through which they are viewed by the passengers of the vehicle, I have provided the shaft 67, parallel with the shaft 40, towhichis rigidly fixed the pawl 68, adjacent the ratchet wheel 38. Intermediate of the pawl 68 and the side 1 of the receptacle and encircling the shaft 67 is a spiral spring 69, one end of which is engaged in the side member 1, and the opposite end held against rotation in the shaft, the normal tendency of which is to hold the pawl '68 in engagement with the wheel 38 so that it will not be able to revolve. The opposite end of the shaft 67 has attached thereto the member 70, which 'is located just beneath the street indicating film. Near one edge of the film, and in a direct line longitudinally with the street names on the film, are formed the openings 71, which are designed to receive the projec tion 83 of the member 70, as the openings attempt to pass thereover, the spring 69 normally holding the projection 83 of the member upwardly against the film so that it will register with every hole 71 asiit passes thereover and hold the film against tart-her motion. which insures the street names appearing on the film being held in the center of the transparentportion 72 oi the cover 5. The end 74 of the bell-crank 35 partly encircles the wheel 38, so that, when the solenoid 29 is actuated and the portion 30 of the shaft 31 is drawn therein, the end '74 of the bell crank 35 will strike the pawl 68 releasing it from engagement with the wheel 38; which action will simultaneously force the projection 88 of the member '70 downwardly from registration in one of the open ings 71, thereby permitting the entire mechanism to move and the film to rotate until the next succeeding opening 71 passes over the projection 83 of the member 70 and it registers therein, simultaneously with the pawl 68 engaging the wheel 38, stopping the entire mechanism until the next succeeding operation of the device.

The film winding rollers ll andv 86 are held in place in the receptacle by means oi flour standards or posts 75, which are secured to the back 01 the receptacle in any desired manner. The rollers are held properly spaced apart by means of the straps 76 and 77, to which four short angle bars 78 are attached, and through which the posts extend, they being screw-threaded at their upper ends and the nuts 79 applied thereto, thereby securely holding the rollers in their proper position within the receptacle. The straps 75 and 76 are held together by a through strap 85 forming a suitable frame support for the rollers.

it is evident then, that should it be desired that a film and rollers be changed from one mechanism to another, all that would be necessary to do would be to remove the four nuts 79 and lift the entire film and rollers out of the receptacle.

I have shown the thumb-nuts 80, screwthreaded into the journal Sal into which the rod 40 is keyed, and 81, secured to the rod 67, so that the device may be manually operated when desired, as for example, when a car is leavingthe car barn, the indicator would then have to be set properly when the car starts on its own run. To operate the device manually, the thumb-nut 81 would be turned in a clock-wise direction just enough to re lease the pawl 68 from the wheel 38 and the projection 83 of the member 70 from registration within one of the openings 71, when the thumb-nut would be turned in either direction until the proper street name ap peared, and the thumb-nut 81 would be released to properly retain the film in the position desired.

From the foregoing it is evident that I have devised a comparatively simple street indicating device which will be automatically and positively operated at predetermined intervals as the car advances.

Having thus described my invention, what I claimand desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. The combination with a street indicating device of the character described, having an electrically operative connection through the trolley of the street car, comprising a receptacle within the car, a pair of reversible film holding rollers within the receptacle and a shaft for intermittently operating the rollers, of a solenoid within the receptacle for rotating the shaft in one direction, means for electrically controlling the solenoid and electrically controlled means for reciprocating the shaft to change the direction of rotation of the film.

2. The combination with a street indicating device of the character described, having an electrically operative connection through the trolley of the street car, comprising a receptacle within the car, a pair of reversible film holding rollers within the receptacle and a shaft for intermittently operating the rollers, of a solenoid within the receptacle for rotating the shaft in one direction, means for electrically controlling the solenoid, electrically controlled means for reciprocating the shaft to change the direction of rotation oi the film, and means for manually operating the rollers independently of the electric apparatus.

3. The combination with a street indicat ing device of the character described, having an electrically operative connection through the trolley of the street car, comprising a receptacle within the car, a pair of reversible film holdingrollers within the receptacle and a shaft for intermittently operating the rollers, of a solenoid within the receptacle for rotating the shaft in one direction, means for electrically controlling the solenoid, electrically controlled means for automatically reversing the operation of the film at the end of the line.

4. A street indicator of the class described, comprising a suitable receptacle, film carrying spaced rollers within the receptacle, a shaft cooperatively engaged with one or the other of the rollers and electrically operated and controlled means for reciprocating the shaft to change the direction of rotation of the rollers, electrically operated means for rotating the shaft when the circuit to said means is closed, and electrically operated and controlled means for opening and closing the circuit to said last mentioned means.

5. A street indicator of the class described, comprising a suitable receptacle, film carrying spaced rollers within the receptacle, a

shaft cooperatively engaged with one or the other of the rollers and electrically operated and controlled means for reciprocating the shaft to change the direction of rotation of the rollers, electrically operated means for rotating the shaft when the circuit to said means is closed, electrically operated and controlled means for opening and closing the circuit to the last mentioned means, and means cooperatively engageable With the film for regulating the extent of rotation thereof. V

In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my signature in the presence of two Witnesses.

' LYLE G. SCOTT. Witnesses J. 6. MIKE, IDA M. CHIABorTL 

